Cards' kids bringing smiles to Strom

The extraordinary success of the St. Louis Cardinals' rookie pitchers in 2013 is attributable to their development with San Diego product Brent Strom, center, serving as the Cards' minor league pitching coordinator.
— AP Photo

The extraordinary success of the St. Louis Cardinals' rookie pitchers in 2013 is attributable to their development with San Diego product Brent Strom, center, serving as the Cards' minor league pitching coordinator.
/ AP Photo

Quite naturally, Brent Strom has been watching the World Series with the pride of a father. But also, professionally speaking, a new sense of detachment.

All those rookies and first-years who pitched the Cardinals to the National League pennant are power arms who came up through the vaunted St. Louis system. Throughout the postseason, all the talk has been of the “Cardinal Way,” the organizational program that turns out pitchers and players who are majors-ready upon arrival in St. Louis.

From November of 2007 until just this month, St. Louis’ minor-league pitching instructor and/or coordinator was Strom, the former San Diego High, City College and USC star whose own young-gun years were spent winning two national championships and pitching for three major league clubs.

“Yeah, of course, it’s definitely paternal,” said Strom, now 65. “When I’m watching them perform, good or bad, my mind drifts back to the first time I met them and where they started, the growth and the failures they had at certain times.

“The thing I -- and all of our minor-league coaches -- gave them was the dream that they could make it. As minor-league player development, we never know for sure who’s going to make it. But this group, you could see, there was a goal there and they were working toward it.”

When the Cardinals lost closer Jason Motte to injury, they gave the gig to 23-year-old Trevor Rosenthal, who fanned 108 major league hitters in only 75 1/3 innings of his first regular season. With a fastball approaching 98 mph, Rosenthal needed only 11 pitches to strike out the side in saving Game 2 at Fenway Park, then won Game 3 at Busch Stadium.

The star of the bunch – just about the most impressive pitcher in baseball over the past month, in fact – is starter Michael Wacha. Though drafted only last year out of Texas A&M, he wasn't really hurried to the majors. Fatigured from throwing college ball, the Cardinals initially sent him to the Gulf Coast League to run out the clock for the rest of the summer, giving him just two starts.

“His first or second game, he’s sitting on Field One in Jupiter (Fla.) with 17-, 18-year-old Dominican and Venezuelan kids, chasing foul balls, being the batboy, being the ballboy,” said Strom. “You’d have never known this was a first-round draft choice, the way he interacted with these kids.

“I said right there, “This is not only a great young pitcher, but a character guy.’/I That’s what you look for.”

And that, partly is the “Cardinal Way” at work. Along that way to St. Louis, prima donnas tend to get left behind. That’s how you win a pennant with 10 rookies on your 25-man postseason roster.

“We have no magic formulas,” said Strom, who ended his injury-abbreviated career as a Padres lefthander. “It’s a constant realization and respect for the game. Play hard, play fair, respect your opponents and play the game with respect, win or lose. That’s transcended down through the minor leagues.

“Not all of them get it. Believe me, we had our share of renegades. But the Rosenthals and the 41st-round guy, Kevin Siegrist, and (starters) Joe Kelly and Shelby Miller, they all get it. Some just get it quicker than others.”

Only out of habit and past reference does Strom use the pronoun “we” for the Cardinals. As of Oct. 7, he’s the major-league pitching coach for the Houston Astros, a position he also held back in 1996.

For each of the past two years, the Astros have managed to be the worst team in their league – indeed, in the majors. They’ve done this while playing in two different leagues -- the National in 2012 and American in 2013 -- losing 100 games in three straight seasons.

You can see where they’re trying to get, though, and how they plan to get there. Before he became GM in Houston, Jeff Luhnow headed up the Cardinals’ scouting and player development. In addition to Strom, he's lured Dyar Miller away from the Cardinals to be the Astros' minor league pitching coordinator.

Starting the 2013 season with a major league payroll of just $22 million, Houston’s gone all in with youth and development. Homegrown. And while the Cardinals and Astros no longer are in the same division -- and certainly not the same league -- St. Louis should be on alert.

“I will say one thing,” said Strom. “I know that Cardinal organization inside and out. I know what those guys are made of. If the Cardinals leave anybody exposed that I like, expect them to be picked up.”